


The Boy Who Ran

by bellaaanovak



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), Victorious
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Best Friends, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Guilt, Mild Language, Mutual Pining, POV First Person, Pining, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-22
Updated: 2016-01-22
Packaged: 2018-05-15 12:43:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5785744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellaaanovak/pseuds/bellaaanovak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After months of traveling alone without his companion, Jade West, the Doctor gets a mysterious summons that encourages him to keep finding a way to get to her after he lost her. He never gives up, he never gives in, and he never walks away. This is the story of the time he very nearly did.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to my fic, [The Girl Who Was Lost](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4032424). Please read that before you read this! 
> 
> This is, of course, dedicated to my wonderful friend Kara, who's waited and waited for this work. I love you, cutie. I hope this is everything I hyped it up to be. 
> 
> This is my first time writing from the Doctor's point of view, so please bear with me, as it's a bit difficult to capture how this man could possibly think on a daily basis. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Nothing is easy. Absolutely nothing. Everything is complicated, vast, difficult, and intricate. Nothing is ever “too easy”, even though I like to think some things are. Sometimes the things that seem easy are the most impossible. I want to believe there are simple people, simple planets, and simple reasons for why people do the things they do. I want to believe there are one-dimensional laws and one-dimensional people but I have seen too much, and I know better. The universe is not that kind.

 

Although nothing is too easy, there are things that damn well should be. Flying the TARDIS to a planet with green people living on it and rescuing my friend should be easy. It should be the simplest thing in the universe. All I’d have to do is materialize on Colossus III and she’d hear the engines and come running. It’s quite a shame the government is on high alert for intruders and has a block preventing any ships from landing – including my TARDIS.

 

It’s my fault. Colossus III was heavily guarded already, but ever since I made an impromptu visit and slipped past their defenses, they’re more protected than before. It’s my fault she’s stuck. It’s my fault. I don’t even know if she’s alive. For once, I have no idea what to do. I don’t have a plan. I don’t have a clever solution to solve this problem. I am… clueless. Lost. Ha, me, lost… Imagine how she must feel, Doctor.

 

I want to hope she doesn’t think she was abandoned, but I don’t know where she was when I left. I don’t know what she saw or heard if she even saw or heard anything. She could have woken up a prisoner and was told I left her behind on purpose. Well, I suppose I did. I could have fought harder; I could have done more than wave my screwdriver around… I don’t know why I didn’t. On a dark day, a day darker than most of my days, I hoped she died in that forest so she wouldn’t have to live with the insinuation I left her.

 

The TARDIS really gave me hell for that one.

 

She landed on the Ood Sphere and wouldn’t let me in for hours. It was freezing and she wouldn’t open the doors until I apologized. That was four months ago. I know better, now. I know I have to find her. I have to keep going. I was so close to breaking my oath… breaking my promise. I was selfish and couldn’t believe I lost another one. I never thought I would lose her.

 

For someone hundreds of years old, it gets blurry sometimes. Remembering experiences and feelings gets more difficult with every passing few years. I store feelings away in my head when I don’t want to feel them or when I want to forget them. My vault opened last week. The dam in my head broke and crashed down and I… I _felt_. I felt everything I shoved away and I felt it so hard, the TARDIS felt it, too. I found something that belongs… belonged… to her.

 

A necklace. A meaningless, insignificant necklace broke my walls. It got harder and harder to put my feelings where I didn’t want them and suddenly I realized how Martha Jones felt. I didn’t put it together at first, but I figured it out in my thick head. I’m over a thousand years old and sometimes I am so stubborn I don’t admit to anything, but this time I did. The only time I gave in is when I gave in to love. With Sarah Jane, with Rose, with River… I didn’t try to prevent anything. I wanted it as badly as they did. But with her, I tried so hard to stop myself.

 

Nothing is easy, but somehow, falling in love with this tiny, makeup clad, loud, passionate human girl was the easiest thing in the universe.


	2. Chapter One

I haven’t said her name in six months. I’ve thought it, but after a while, I stopped doing even that. It hurt too much. I’ve been alone for a long time. There’s no one interesting enough. I suppose I could find someone, but I don’t think I need anyone but her. It would be simple enough to land on some civilized planet and make an impression on someone and then it would be all of time and space as the cycle continues.

 

Maybe I’m so stubborn because of how things ended with us. I hate endings for this reason. I need… more. I need more than just the knowledge of her being stuck on a planet that isn’t hers. Is she okay? Is she safe? Is she alive? Yes. I know that. I would know if she weren’t. Would I? Yes. Right. She’s alive, but… that’s still not enough for me. Of course I’ve tried to get to Colossus III but I couldn’t even get close to the atmosphere without the threat of being shot down.

 

I don’t know how long it’s been for her down there, but I would never go back to right after I left. I wouldn’t erase her timeline like that. I’ve done enough. I could… I could just land the TARDIS in the forest on that day and find her but the results could potentially be catastrophic. Not to mention, I’d be rewriting every moment she lived after that day and replace it with me coming to the rescue. She’d know I spent months mourning her. She always knew.

 

I haven’t been to Earth, either. I haven’t even been in the Solar System. I want to stay as far away from her home as I can. It just reminds me of my failure, and not just with her, with all of them. My already heavy guilt will get even heavier.

 

I spend a lot of time on the planet Kantra. It’s a gorgeous tropical planet in the same system Colossus III is in. Sometimes I just stare at it in the sky, menacingly hanging over me and mocking me. The TARDIS knows when I get in one of my more self-deprecating moods and tries to cheer me up in her own ways, and it usually works, but there are days when not even my TARDIS can make me feel better.

 

Kantra is mostly beaches and rainforests with metropolitan areas spread around the planet. Most of the time I spend here is in a small hut in one of the rainforests. It’s the grounded equivalent of my cloud. I try to stay as isolated as possible, but sometimes tourists wander far into the forest and I have to be as nice as I can to get them to leave. No one knows it’s me who’s staying here besides one of the locals, a forest ranger. So when he comes to my door, I’m not too surprised.

 

“Ezekiel, please, come in.” I say tiredly. I gesture to the sofa and watch him sit down as I lean against the counter. He looks worried, his lilac skin glistening with sweat. “Is everything alright?”

“You mean you don’t know?” Ezekiel asks. He has a box with him and I look at it curiously.

“No. What’s in the box?”

“It’s a probe. It landed on the beach near some tourists, and since that area of the beach is in our jurisdiction, it ended up in my hands.” Ezekiel answers.

“A probe? What sort of probe?” I ask.

“I don’t recognize it, but it’s extremely resistant and shielded. It’s-it’s quite powerful, actually. It managed to come through the atmosphere without being damaged at all.” Ezekiel opens the box and carefully removes a rectangular probe about a foot wide and a foot long. I walk over to it and pull my screwdriver out of my pocket, scanning it for a moment. It doesn’t pick up anything peculiar but I notice it’s been opened.

“Did you open it?”

“Yes, I had to. I had to make sure it wasn’t a threat.” Ezekiel answers.

“Of course, and was it? What was in it?”

“It’s… it’s a letter. It’s a letter and a device I don’t recognize.”

“Okay, let me see it.”

“Wait, before I show you… there was an instruction at the end of the letter for whoever read it. She said to find you and ask you a question.” Ezekiel looks up at me, confusion in his eyes. God knows how I look.

“She? Who? Tell me, now!” The air thickens as I run a hand through my hair. “I’m sorry. What is the question?”

“Is that flame still burning?”

 

My vision clouds and my knees buckle as I comprehend the words I just heard. With shaking hands, I reach up to my chest and grip the charm on the necklace I always have on. It’s a crescent moon charm. It’s silver and it has a small emerald gem on it. On the back of the moon, the letter “J” is engraved into the metal. I squeeze the necklace and fall back onto the loveseat, struggling to understand.

 

“You have to go now. Leave, please.” I say in short breaths. Silently, Ezekiel gets up and walks away, shutting the door behind him. I move to the couch and open the probe. Suddenly, I get a wave of memories I tried to push away. I remember guns pointed at my head. I remember the sonic screwdriver buzzing helplessly as I stood in front of the TARDIS, trying to act more threatening than I actually felt. I remember… I remember hearing her screaming and then going silent. I remember me yelling the same words, over and over, until I was backed into the worst decision I ever made. _I won’t leave without her. I won’t leave without her. I won’t leave without her._

But you did, Doctor. You left her! I should’ve fought harder; I should’ve given everything I had into finding her. Looking back, I would have let them take the TARDIS if I could just get away for a few moments and find her. Even if we were both executed on the spot, at least she wouldn’t be alone. At least I’d be with her. I didn’t ever think I’d lose her. I left her and I was a coward. Stuck between a girl and a box. If I had a do-over, I’d choose her. I’d choose her every time.

 

I gently remove the few pieces of paper and the object Ezekiel didn’t recognize. I pick it up and hold my screwdriver to it, powering it up. It’s hers. It’s her cell phone. The background on her phone is her flame. Mars. Oh, I wish I could go back to that day. No… I wish I could go back to the day after, when the suns rose at the same time she laughed. Dozens of messages and notifications begin to pour in and I realize she must not have checked her phone in months. The battery most likely died shortly after I left her. I don’t read the messages. I already invaded her life enough.

 

She probably included the phone to let me know the letter was really from her. The paper is a bit tattered, but mostly intact. Of course, on a planet covered in abundant trees, the quality of the paper is incredible. I begin to read it and I swear a piece of written word hasn’t made me this upset since the Last Page.

 

Words: the most powerful things in the universe. These words might just save my life.

 

_One Week Later_

I’ve been using all my time to research Colossus III. If there’s even a splinter in the defense system, I know about it. When I see that planet in the sky now, I don’t feel threatened or mocked… just motivated. I’m going to find her. I don’t care how long it takes. I know every little thing about Colossus III. I know the internal workings of their government. I know about holidays and sick days and weak days. I know when the tyrant who runs it goes to bed and I know what the military’s commander has for breakfast every morning. I _will_ find her again. I will rescue her, and when I do, I will make sure to answer her question.

 

That flame will always be burning. It’s almost infinite. It’s forbidden and closed off and protected. It’s burning so hot and so far. NASA has stopped questioning it. Generations of Martians always keep it under heavy guard and treat it like a landmark. I’m a time traveler. I’ve been to the future. That flame burns for centuries. It burns for millennia and it burns as hot as it did when it was first lit. The only thing that puts it out is Mars collapsing and dying in billions of years, just like the Earth does, just like everything does. Well, not everything. Not everything dies. Not love. Not always.

 

There is one particular day that comes around every year on Colossus III where the defense will be weaker than ever. Every year for centuries, a double solar storm hits the planet, like clockwork. It hits Kantra and the other few planets in the _Due Soli_ system as well. Everyone takes part in one-day hibernation. The planet is hushed. Even the government goes deep underground in bases and bunkers created for this purpose. It is the quietest day in their year, and that is the day I’m going to land the TARDIS on. Of course, I’ll land her underground as well, because the solar storm will no doubt knock her about, but at least no one will see me coming.

 

That day is today.

 

I bid farewell to Ezekiel before he goes down to Kantra’s own protected areas… I might not be seeing him again. Once I get her back, I’m never returning to this system again. I can’t bear to look at those two suns without hearing her laugh next to me, feeling her heart against my chest, or waking up with her in my arms.

 

I head to the TARDIS and set my course for Colossus III. She grumbles a bit, but even she knows this is the right thing to do. I pull a lever and the engines engage.

 

“J… Jade.” Her name falls from my lips for the first time in six months, and I could almost taste the sweetness. “Jade West. I will see you soon.”

 

I’m the Doctor. I never give up. I never give in. I am always running. I ran away from her… but not anymore. I’m running _to_ her. I’m running to you, Jade. I am always running to you.


	3. Chapter Two

Colossus III is incredibly quiet when I land. I open the doors and peek out slowly, checking my surroundings. I’m definitely underground in some sort of base. I’m in a small storage room, though, so hopefully no one will notice the TARDIS. I go back inside and head to the wardrobe to change… I want to look my best. A bit of Sandshoes’ vanity leaked into me during regeneration, but it’s not just that. I don’t know how long it’s been for Jade since she’s seen me. I just want her to feel safe, like she’s with someone she trusts.

 

I put on a fresh outfit and my favorite velvet coat and matching bow tie. Bow ties are cool. Somewhere in New York City, Amelia Pond just cringed. The planet is still on alert, even today, so I also put on a watch that reflects light and atoms and… it’s an invisibility watch. I set the TARDIS to invisibility mode as well and leave quietly. I have my screwdriver set to locate human DNA, and if I’m right, Jade West is the only human on this planet. It should be easy enough to find her.

 

Carefully yet quickly maneuvering through the sea of people, I anxiously wait for the sonic to go off. I think I’ve only been walking for a few minutes but it feels like years. Time is weird for me lately. A week feels like six months and the six months I actually lived felt like decades. Time went so slowly without her. It goes slower when you’re alone, sitting in silence and talking to yourself.

 

After going through at least five different doors and passing hundreds of citizens, I finally get a hit on the sonic. The timid beeping increases a bit and I follow the direction it’s telling me to go in, my hearts beating faster than usual. I come to a large door and the sonic makes a rapid beeping noise before a long, single tone. Bingo. I unlock the door with the screwdriver, and then I put it away. The door slides open to a room with about thirty people in it. There are a few families, some children, no one I recognize.

 

I think the sonic gave me a false positive. Sadly, I give the room one last once-over and turn to walk out. Then I hear it… a laugh. The most beautiful laugh I’ve ever heard. I look back around and study every face in the room until I find her. She looks different… but it’s her. Her hair is now jet black and longer than before, styled into an intricate braid going down her back. She has a vine-like design painted on her cheeks, going down her neck, shoulders, and chest. She’s even dressed in Colossus III’s typical attire.

 

Jade looks so radiant, I see two suns in her eyes.

 

She’s sitting with Imogen and her children, the family we helped when we first got here. Imogen looks happier than she did before and her children have grown a lot. I start to worry how long I’ve been gone. Jade seems fully immersed in the culture and while it relieves me she’s not in a jail cell or dead, it makes me wonder if she’s even going to want to leave.

 

Well, I won’t know until I ask.

 

I look around the room for somewhere, anywhere, I can be with her alone and see a small storage closet similar to the one I parked the TARDIS in. I gently step around the people in the room and slip into the closet. Rummaging through some of the boxes, I find a round blue fruit and open the door a tad, rolling the fruit towards Jade. It bumps her leg and she looks right at me, and even though she can’t see me, I still smile. I head back into the closet and wait for her to come in, and when she does, I shut the door and turn on the light.

 

“Hello?” She asks softly. I shakily disable the invisibility watch and see her eyes widen. She seems like she’s quite literally been rendered speechless. I want to say so much, I want to hear _her_ say so much, but I honestly don’t know what I’m going to get. I put my hands together behind my back and inhale slowly. “It’s you.”

“You remember me, that’s good,” I say far too nonchalantly. “You… you _do_ remember me, right?”

“You’re the Doctor,” Jade says quietly. “I could never forget you.” I unfold my hands and rest them at my sides. “You left me.” Jade’s voice starts to break and I take a half step towards her, but she stumbles backwards.

“Jade, please…”

“I thought I was never gonna see you again! I waited for you!”

“Jade, I am… I am so sorry. I couldn’t come back. The planet’s defenses were too strong, you have to understand, I wanted to!” I walk towards her again and take her shoulders in my hands. It burns like a thousand supernovas in the best possible way. This is the first time I’ve touched her in six months.

“Why did you leave me?!” Jade’s eyes start to water and I don’t know what to do. Everything I feared would happen is happening. I’m living my worst expectation.

“I didn’t want to. I swear. Every day, I thought of you. Look, Jade. Look.” I briefly let go of her shoulders and pull her necklace out from under my shirt. Her eyes dart to it and then back to me. “Every day for the past six months, I relived how… how dreadful it was leaving you that day. It’s the most guilt I’ve felt in a long time. Please, I… I don’t know what else to say.” Jade furrows her eyebrows and I watch her intently as she reaches her hand out and grazes it on my cheek. Her shivering hand is a combination of fire and ice on my skin.

“Doctor,” Jade whispers, voice still trembling. “My Doctor. I missed you so fucking much.” I let out a sigh of relief, joy, and sadness all at once as I pull her into a tight embrace.

 

Jade throws her arms around my neck and she clutches me like her life depends on it. One of my hands slides around her waist with painful familiarity and I tangle my other hand in her hair, holding her close to me. Nothing else in the universe matters at this moment. I’m more at peace than I’ve been in months and hearing her soft cries as she buries her face into my neck is bliss. I never want to let her go again. After a long embrace, I part with her and look down at her, her face inches from mine. I cup her face in both of my hands and watch her watch me, eyes red and watery but still green and bright as ever. I kiss her forehead sweetly and grin.

 

“Your flame is still burning.” Jade grins victoriously and laughs. I laugh with her.

“You got my letter!”

“Of course I got your letter,” Jade and I let go of each other and even though we’re only a foot apart, I hear the universe sigh in disappointment. “You didn’t date it. How long have you been on Colossus III, Jade?”

“Doctor, that doesn’t matter,” she says.

“It does to me. How long?”

“Thirteen months. Well, Earth months. I made a calendar and a sort of twenty-four hour clock thing.” My legs weaken as she speaks. More than a year. More than a year, Doctor, you blithering idiot.

“Over a year?” I ask, softly. “So, you’re… You’re twenty, now.”

“Yeah. A year without you. I never realized…”

“Realized what?”

“Oh, don’t make me say it.” Jade crosses her arms.

“Say what?”

“Doctor!”

“Jade!”

“I never realized how special you were to me, okay? God. I sound like… I don’t even _know_ what I sound like, alright, but I didn’t realize how incredibly fucking important you were until you weren’t there.” Jade exhales sharply and wipes her makeup with her sleeves. I let out a breathy laugh and she chuckles slightly.

“Well, you never have to worry about that again,” I respond. I straighten my bow tie and hold my hand out. She looks at me warily. “Oh, please, don’t even argue.”

 

Jade glances at my hand and then at me. She takes a deep breath and smiles hugely. I grin as she takes my hand and my hearts nearly stop beating. I pull her into another hug and when I let go and see her face, she seems sad again. I tilt her chin up with my finger and frown.

 

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” I ask her quietly.  
“It’s just… Imogen. And Silas and Mason. They took me in and protected me when I had nothing. I would’ve died if not for them, and it just feels wrong to leave them here on this corrupt planet.” Jade is upset, and of course that means I’m upset as well, but she has so much passion and care for these people and the citizens of Colossus III, it makes me fall in love with her a little more. If that’s even possible. Of course it is, Doctor, don’t be ridiculous.

“Well, I know of a planet two whole systems away where Imogen and her children could be safe, and the population is very blended, so they wouldn’t really have trouble fitting in. I could give them translators and set them up with a place to live--”

“So, do it!” Jade cuts me off excitedly.

“It’d be entirely up to them. Corrupt planet or not, if they don’t want to leave their home planet, you’d have to understand.” I respond.

“Yeah, definitely. Um, she’s actually probably wondering why the hell I’ve been in this closet for so long, so…” Jade quirks an eyebrow.

“Right. Yes. Of course. I’ll just wait here.” I say timidly. I sit down on a large box and watch Jade leave. About ten long and boring minutes pass before she finally comes back, shutting the door behind her. I stand up quickly and flatten my coat. “Well? What did she say?”

“She doesn’t want to leave. Silas and Mason are already so accustomed to Colossus III; it’d break their hearts if they had to leave.” Jade pouts and sighs heavily, but regains her composure momentarily. “Doctor…” I hold my hands up and clear my throat.

“It’s okay. I know you feel like… like you owe them, and you’re obliged to help them and stay with them. I… I understand completely.”

“What are you talking about?” Jade asks, a sly grin growing on her face. “I’m coming with you, you absolute moron!”

“Oh. Oh! Well, then!” I go to her, picking her up and spinning her around in a tight hug. “Let’s get going. I want to get the TARDIS out of here before the solar storm hits.”

“Okay! Wait, wait, what if someone sees you? People are sort of… used to _me_ , but to them, you’re still public enemy number three.” Jade says, eyes wide.

“I’ve got this, this thing – this invisibility watch – number _three_? Who are public enemies one and two?”

“It’s not a competition, Doctor.”

“Right. ‘Course not.” I squint and shrug it off. I’ll find out later because it is absolutely a competition. I turn my watch on and hold Jade’s hand gently. “I’ll lead the way back to the TARDIS. Don’t let go of my hand. Act casual and natural.” Jade giggles and I roll my eyes, which she obviously can’t see, but still. “What?”

“It’s funny how I can hear you but not see you. Invisibility watch. I thought you ran out of ways to impress me.”

 

I squeeze Jade’s hand lightly and carefully leave the closet with her right beside me. I walk her out of the room and past the crowds of people as quickly yet delicately as I can. I can’t wait to get the hell off of this planet. When we finally reach the storage closet I landed in, I lock the door behind us and turn my watch off. We hurry into the TARDIS and I take off as fast as possible. The engines groan and wheeze and Jade laughs happily. I look ‘round and see her smiling and in that moment, I’m filled with pride. I did it; I am the Doctor and I found my lost girl.

 

Jade runs up to the console and strokes it softly, gazing up at it. The TARDIS hums in response. When we land, I triple check the scanners to make sure we’re out of the _Due Soli_ system, and I’m pleased with the result. I swing the monitor away from Jade’s peering eyes and she groans irritatingly. Never knew how much I missed that.

 

“Where are we?” Jade begs.

“Go and have a look.” I snap my fingers and the TARDIS doors swing open with a faint creak. I follow Jade outside and close the doors behind me. We both stare at the place across the street and she grips my hand so tight it could possibly break. I wouldn’t care if it did. “Earth. The year 2012. It’s been, ooh, about… three weeks since the day we met. You’re a little older than you should be and you’ve still got a couple of months of school to finish, but if you go over there and talk to your friends sitting at that table, you will save them from all from decades of grief. I’ve checked with the TARDIS. This moment, your life, your friends’ lives… they’re in flux. Nothing is fixed. You can be with them again and they won’t die mourning you. Jade…” I turn to her, taking her face in my hands again. “I want you… to, er, travel with me, more than I’ve wanted anything.”

“So let me stay with you. Please, Doctor. I spent too long missing you to live another day without you.” Jade responds softly, tears welling in her eyes. I take my hands down and tilt my head in confusion.

“Who said anything about not letting you stay with me?”

“What?”

“I just… You can pop over and say hello! Go say hi to your mum; catch up on your homework… I’ll come and get you on certain days but you can still sort of live here.” I laugh lightly and smirk down at her as she smiles, wiping a couple of stray tears.

“You fucking scared me! I thought you were ditching me.” Jade laughs. “Thank you, Doctor. For saving me, for taking me home. For everything.”

 

Jade pushes herself up on her toes and kisses my cheek. Somewhere in the universe a star just exploded. She smiles at me before crossing the street carefully. I lean against the TARDIS and watch her go through the gate surrounding Hollywood Arts and approach her friends. They seem happy to see her and she looks over at me. There’s something in her eyes I can’t quite put my finger on. She seems happy, though. Quite right.

 

I head back into the TARDIS and take my coat off lazily, hanging it on the railing. I fiddle with a couple of buttons and grip the console. I stand there for a moment, wondering who to thank for this miracle. I hear the doors fling open and turn around abruptly. Jade’s burst in and as she stares at me, she snaps her fingers, the doors shutting just as quickly. I lean back against the console and look at her curiously.

 

“What’s the matter? Did you forget something?” I ask as she hurries over to me.

“Yeah. I did.”

 

In an instant, Jade is in front of me, her hands gripping my face and her lips smashed against mine. I don’t really quite know what to do but I like where this is going so I act on instinct and hold her waist with my hands. I kiss back and I can feel her smiling against my lips. When she pulls away, her cheeks are flushed pink and somehow I get the feeling mine are as well. I clear my throat and widen my eyes, still sort of processing what’s just happened.

 

“Jade--”

“Shut up. Doctor, please, for once, just… shut up.” Jade is grinning obscenely but I still don’t really know what’s going on.

“I’m – I’m not – I’m getting some mixed signals here--”

“I want nothing more than to be with you, so, just… stop talking and press a button and take me somewhere amazing.”

“Jade West, are you asking _me_ to run away with _you_?” I ask, my hands still lingering on her waist.

“Yes! Why the hell not? Come on. Let’s run away. Together.” Jade smiles and I smile back. I reach behind me and pull a lever, causing the TARDIS to groan almost happily.

“Together.”

 

I’m the Doctor. I’m over a thousand years old. Not a lot of things are easy. The universe has dealt me a difficult hand and many things in life are complicated and vast and impossible. Sometimes all you have is pain and hell and sadness. But being here in my TARDIS and watching Jade run around the console room, laughing and grinning, is the closest thing to paradise I think I’ll ever know.

**Author's Note:**

> So basically, the Doctor and Jade continue to travel together and she lives on the TARDIS 95% of the time and visits home whenever she can. Her friends know about him now so they don't ask questions when she ages faster than them or doesn't see them for weeks at a time. Jade and Beck had a civil breakup. The Doctor is more in love with Jade than he thought possible. They travel for years and years and it has to end someday but it ends with Jade turning thirty-two on the TARDIS and realizing if it has to end somewhere, it ends there. She spends the rest of her life on Earth with her family and friends, passing peacefully at the ripe old age of ninety-seven, with the Doctor by her bedside holding her hand when she takes her last breath. 
> 
> ♥ peace and love. thanks for reading :~)


End file.
